1944 - USS Susan B. Anthony (AP 72) strikes a German mine while approaching "Omaha" Beach to land reinforcements. After an unsuccessful effort to contain flooding, she is abandoned and, within a few hours, sinks. No lives are lost in her sinking.

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Executive Summary:

Top national headlines include continuing coverage of primary elections held Tuesday, preparation for the upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit, and the impacts of international trade changes. Newport News Daily Press reports that Congress wants to consider extending the service life of U.S.'s oldest aircraft carrier in order to expand the fleet. A provision was added to the House's 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that would direct the Navy to brief the House Armed Services Committee by March 1, 2019 on options that exist to extend the service life of the USS Nimitz. Defense Daily reports that the House Appropriations committee's draft FY 2019 Defense Appropriations bill funds 12 Navy ships including three Littoral Combat Ships. Additionally, the Associated Press reports that North Korea has razed some facilities used for testing ballistic missiles following its declaration that it was suspending nuclear and missile tests.

In Operation Swift Saber, U.S. Marines sweep an area 10 miles northwest of Da Nang in South Vietnam.

1981

Israeli F-16 fighter-bombers destroy Iraq's only nuclear reactor.

1994

The Organization of African Unity formally admits South Africa as its fifty-third member.

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Close-in fire support for the infantry at Omaha Beach was terribly lacking until...US Navy destroyers "saved the day".

As many of you know, a massive German slaughter house awaited US troops at Omaha Beach.

June 6, 1944, at H-hour 0630 real trouble started. Landing craft coxswains lost their bearings in the early morning mist, deepened by smoke and dust kicked up by the naval bombardment. Many of them missed their assigned landing sectors. Of the 64 DD tanks (amphibious) 27 made it to the Dog beaches but only five got ashore on Easy beaches; the rest foundered on the way in.

USS Carmick action report: ..."Early in the morning a group of tanks were seen to be having difficulty making their way along the breakwater road toward Exit D-1 [the Vierville draw]. A silent coorporation was established wherein they fired at a target on the bluff above them and we then fired several salvos at the same spot. They then shifted fire futher along the bluff and we used their bursts again as a point of aim."... Captain Sanders, COMDESTRON 18 Commander was in the USS Frankfort, arriving off the beachead just before 0900. Concerned about increasing casualties on the beach, he ordered ALL destroyers to close on the beach as far in as possible and support the assault troops.

Close-in fire support by navy destroyers speeded up much improved conditions all along the beach at Omaha by 1000.

After action report: (personal letter from Sergeant James E. Knight of the 299th Combat Engineer Battalion wrote to the crew of the USS Frankfort)..."There is no question, at least in my mind, if you had not come in as close as you did, exposing yourself to God only knows how much, that I would not have survived the night. I truly believe that in the absence of the damage you inflicted on German emplacements, the only way any GI was going to leave Omaha was in a mattress cover or as a prisoner of war."...Sergeant Barton Davis, 299th Combat Engineer Battalion wrote to say: " How well I remember your ship coming in so close. I thought then as I do now that it was one brave thing to come in so close...Your ship not only knocked out the pillbox but the mortar positions above us...I always thought how great it would be to tell the Captain of this ship how grateful I am..." ( a personal letter to Captain James Semmes, CO of the USS Frankfort).

Colonel S.B. Mason, USA, Chief of Staff of the 1st Division, wrote the following letter to Rear Admiral Hall after an inspection of the German defenses at Omaha. They should have been impregnable" "But there was one element of attack they could not parry...I am now firmly convinced that our supporting naval fire got us in; that without that gunfire we positively could not have crossed the beaches."...

In his book, "The Longest Day", Cornelius Ryan so described German defenses of Omaha. The German 352nd Division's artillery batteries were only a part of what Ryan called "the deadly guns of Omaha Beach": There were 8 concrete bunkers with guns of 75 millimeters or larger caliber [75mm to 88mm]; 35 pillbox ea with artillery pieces of various sizes/or automatic weapons; 4 batteries of artillery [presumably Pluskat's]; 18 antitank guns [37mm to 75mm]; 6 mortar pits; approximately 40 rocket-launching sites; each with four 38-millimeter rocket tubes; and NO LESS THAN 85 strategically placed machine gun nests.

Here is a Youtube I put together from D Day with my good friend Jim Kunkle at the 70th. Some of you have seen it before. He is over there again at 95. Today 74 years ago and the days that followed changed everything.

Me and some high school friends stood on the cliff in Normandy and Le Havre 44 years ago. I stood there staring out at the 20-foot-high rusted iron Xs beyond the shore break, turned to my right and stared at the huge guns sticking out of the sandy grassy cliffs like broken bones.

Socialist France has removed the Xs and guns. Let us never never forget. To AF mom Joyce, thank you for my American flag scarf you brought home for me from a shop near the American Cemetery. My Uncle Eddie's best friend is buried there. GOD BLESS EVERYBODY. THANK, HELP AND PRAY FOR OUR VETERANS - Nance

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Thanks to Doctor Rich

Thanks to Ed …

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - When U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meet for their historic summit in Singapore later this month,

they will be protected by men from one of the fiercest warrior tribes in the world - the Gurkhas of Nepal.

...

A legacy in part of the British colonial era and more recent pragmatic Singaporean leadership, Singapore's Gurkhas are linked to a British tradition that has recruited and paid for elite regiments of soldiers from Nepal for more than 200 years.

Beaten back by the Gurkhas in the 19th century Anglo-Nepalese War and admired for their valor and fighting skills, the colonial British then began to recruit them. Now Gurkhas serve in the British, Indian and Nepalese armies, as well as in Brunei and Singapore.

They have fought in both world wars as well as the Falklands conflict and, more recently, in Afghanistan.

...

Typically recruited at 18 or 19 before being trained in Singapore, the Gurkha soldiers retire at 45 when they are repatriated. While their children attend local schools, Gurkhas are not allowed to marry local women.

A handful of ex-British Army officers serve as sworn-in Singapore police in senior leadership, training and organizational roles.

"Although they are police, the links between the contingent and the British Army remain deep and strong," one British Army officer said. "They are part of a fine tradition."

D-Day has come and gone. The hours that made up June 6, 2013 have passed, just as most of the men who risked their lives on the beaches of France sixty-nine years ago have. No big parades, no fanfare, no widely publicized messages of thanks to a generation who loses 600 a day.

I live in one of the largest cities in North Carolina. Neither the largest television station nor the major newspaper carried any stories mentioning D-Day until I e-mailed the news departments. The newspaper searched and found a touching story about two men who fought together at Omaha Beach. The television station, owned by a big Blueprint NC supporter, never did publish a story.

A co-worker's father was involved in the landing at Normandy. I had the honor of meeting him -- sadly, at the funeral of his wife. He is not sure why he receives all the attention from his hometown newspaper, but he and his three brothers are celebrities because of their service involving "DDAY6644," as his license plate reads. He will tell you that he was just doing his duty and following orders. That day was just another day in a series of long and dangerous days he spent in Europe in 1944, but he made it home alive. At the time, people knew what had to be done, and a man was expected to serve his country. I think that for him, the importance of what he and so many others did in Normandy is finally sinking in.

I have a neighbor who served in the Navy during the Second World War. He was a spotter for the big guns fired from the ships during the invasion. His story, which might be slightly embellished through the years, tells of deeds performed by average men with two things on their minds: winning the war and coming home alive. The selfless acts performed to accomplish the former make it incredibly difficult to imagine anyone accomplishing the latter. There were no ballistic vests like those worn by our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, no state-of-the-art materials or weaponry. Just men wearing a uniform and carrying a rifle.

My father was a Marine who fought in the Pacific. He received the Purple Heart for injuries sustained on Iwo Jima. He always joked that he had it tougher as a Marine than the "dog faces" in the Army -- except for those who were involved in the D-Day landing. He never had anything but respect for those brave men who stormed the beaches in France.

America's "Greatest Generation" is dying at a rate of 600 per day. For my city's mainstream media to have no coverage about D-Day is shameful. We are seeing the results of leadership that does not care about honor, integrity, the people, or the Constitution. Perhaps the mainstream media should stop and realize that without people like those they largely ignored yesterday, they would be publishing only what the State dictated.

On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you. Those are words that everyone who has served deserves to hear while they still can. Six hundred next of Kin are hearing similar words every day on behalf of a loved one who fought in World War II -- with no mention from the president. But why would the president care? These heroes are not the demographic that supports entitlements. These heroes took a stand and risked everything to keep us free.

The president and his administration, including John Kerry, have no idea what it means to "serve." Their only interest is being served by their subjects. The "Greatest Generation" were no one's subject. They fought and risked their lives to keep us from the tyranny that we have freely elected because of low-information (or no-information) voters being promised "entitlements," because of white guilt, and because of the lack of desire to work. The government has made it too easy not to work and at the same time to have the quality of life that is better than someone who works and is not a burden to society.

The Greatest Generation fought their fight against tyranny. Now it is time to turn back Socialism once again. We fail to recognize the efforts of these men with parades and media attention. If you were to take the time to talk with these veterans, parades and news stories are all well and good, but what they really want is for the country they fought to protect to remain free. America needs to remember the lessons of these great men and make this country great once more.

Item Number:1 Date: 06/07/2018 AFGHANISTAN - GHANI ANNOUNCES UNILATERAL CEASE-FIRE THROUGH END OF RAMADAN (JUN 07/TN) TOLONEWS -- Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has announced a unilateral cease-fire with the Taliban, reports Tolo News (Kabul). The cease-fire will begin on June 12 last until June 19, the fifth day after the end of Ramadan, Ghani said in statement on Twitter on Thursday. "This cease-fire is an opportunity for the Taliban to realize that their violent campaign is not winning them hearts and minds but further alienating the Afghan people," said Ghani. The Taliban did not immediately comment on the offer, reported Reuters. It was the first unconditional cease-fire offered by Ghani since he was elected in 2014. U.S. Forces-Afghanistan indicated that they would honor the cease-fire. It would not include American counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State and Al-Qaida, officials said. The announcement comes days after a suicide bomber killed 14 people at a meeting of religious scholars. The scholars issued a statement condemning suicide bombings and urged a cease-fire between the combatants. The scholars called on the Taliban to accept the government's "unconditional peace offer." The Taliban denied involvement in that attack.

Item Number:5 Date: 06/07/2018 CHINA - NEW PHOTO OF DARK SWORD DRONE SHOWS HIGH-SPEED, STEALTHY DESIGN (JUN 07/DAILYMAIL) DAILY MAIL -- A photo of the Aviation Industry Corp. of China's Dark Sword unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been released, reports the Daily Mail (U.K.). It is unclear whether the undated photo -- which also features what is presumably the plane's design team in the foreground -- is displaying a full-sized mockup of the unmanned fighter or an early prototype. A reduced-scale model of the plane was first shown publicly at the Zhuhai Airshow in 2006, with very little information being released since. The color of the Dark Sword's exterior is consistent with the look of other planes that feature radar-absorbing coatings. The aircraft also has an engine inlet comparable to other stealth aircraft, which suggests that it is designed to have an element of stealthiness. The UAV's long fuselage and vertical stabilizers suggest the drone is designed for maximum speed over stealth, said one expert. The design suggests that it is intended for combat missions, rather than reconnaissance or precision strike.

Item Number:6 Date: 06/07/2018 CHINA - SATELLITE PHOTOS SHOW MISSILES ON DISPUTED ISLAND HAVE BEEN MOVED (JUN 07/CNN) CABLE NEWS NETWORK -- China appears to have moved missiles it had deployed to a disputed island in the South China Sea, reports CNN. Satellite imagery from an Israeli intelligence firm, dated June 3, suggests that missile systems on Woody Island may have been removed or relocated. China is unlikely to have completely removed the missiles and is probably concealing them inside buildings, said analysts. Past satellite imagery showed missiles launchers and radar deployed to the island, located in the Paracel chain. The missiles could reappear within a few days, possibly in another part of the South China Sea, noted the Israeli firm. The systems might also be in need of repairs and could return once work is completed, said experts.

Item Number:8 Date: 06/07/2018 IRAQ - CAUSE OF DEADLY BLAST IN SADR CITY UNCLEAR; AT LEAST 18 KILLED (JUN 07/RUDAW) RUDAW -- At least 18 people have been killed and 90 wounded in two explosions near a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad, reports Rudaw (Erbil). The blasts on Wednesday night occurred when an ammunition cache accidently detonated while being moved from a mosque in the Sadr City neighborhood to a nearby car, according to an interior ministry statement cited by Reuters. Other accounts suggested that the incident was a terrorist attack targeting the prominent Shi'ite neighborhood. The cache included heavy weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades and shells belonging to an armed group, said police cited by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Muqtada Sadr, a popular cleric who shares his name with the city, gave members of his Saraya Salam militia three days to investigate the cause of the bombing.

Item Number:9 Date: 06/07/2018 KENYA - ROADSIDE BLAST KILLS 5 POLICE, INJURES 3 (JUN 07/DNATION) DAILY NATION -- Five paramilitary police officers have been killed and three injured in an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Kenya, reports Daily Nation (Kenya). The officers of the General Service Unit, a paramilitary wing of the police, were on a patrol on Wednesday when their truck ran over the roadside bomb in Biboi, near the border with Somalia. The three injured officers were airlifted to a Nairobi hospital. The deputy county commissioner said reinforcements were sent to the area to pursue the suspected Al-Shabaab militants responsible for the attack. Security agencies had indicated that there was evidence that the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab was planning to conduct attacks in Kenya during Ramadan.

Item Number:10 Date: 06/07/2018 LIBYA - AIRSTRIKE KILLS 4 ISIS SUSPECTS NEAR BANI WALID (JUN 07/XIN) XINHUA -- A coalition airstrike in western Libya has killed four suspected members of the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS), reports China's state Xinhua news agency. Tuesday's airstrikes on the outskirts of Bani Walid were likely carried out by the U.S., since the Libyan air force is unable to carry out such airstrikes with precision, said a local security official. U.S. Africa Command confirmed that it conducted the attack, saying it was coordinated with the Libyan Government of National Accord, reported the Libya Herald. No civilians were believed to have been killed, the command said in a statement. A source from Bani Walid told the Libya Observer that three civilians and an ISIS militant were killed in the strike. The uninhabited Kamkum valley is one of the terrorist group's major shelters in Libya. The city's joint security body announced a maximum alert in January after detecting ISIS movements in the area

Item Number:11 Date: 06/07/2018 NIGERIA - 15 KILLED IN SERIES OF RAIDS IN C. NIGERIA (JUN 07/AFP) AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE -- At least 15 people have been killed in a series of attacks in Nigeria's central Benue state, reports Agence France-Presse. Herders raided several villages over a period of 48 hours in the country's central region, a spokesman for the state government said on Thursday. Early Wednesday, the armed herders attacked the village of Tse Ishav, near Guma, killing eight people, with more wounded and others unaccounted for, said the spokesman. The attackers set fire to homes and farms as they departed, local officials said. The same group killed two other people on Monday in the nearby village of Yelwata. Another attack in nearby Logo district killed five more, said the spokesman. Additional police have been deployed to the region, said officials. The area of Benue separates Nigeria's predominately Muslim north from the majority-Christian south. The region has seen a spate of clashes between herders and farmers, largely over land use. The clashes have killed hundreds since January.

Item Number:12 Date: 06/07/2018 NORTH KOREA - IMAGERY SUGGESTS IMPORTANT MISSILE TEST SITE DESTROYED (JUN 07/NYT) NEW YORK TIMES -- Satellite imagery suggests that North Korea is destroying some of its missile testing facilities, reports the New York Times. At a test site near Kusong in the country's northwest, an important missile test stand was destroyed, says a report published Wednesday on the website 38 North, which specializes in North Korean military analysis. North Korean workers appear to have begun destroying the test stand and associated equipment on May 19. In February of last year, North Korea used the facility at Kuson to launch the Pukguksong-2, its first solid-fuel, mid-range ballistic missile. The facility is North Korea's only known site for land-based, canister-launched ballistic missile ejection tests, said the report. Other analysts cited by the Times disputed the idea that the site was a key part of the North's missile testing, pointing out that Pyongyang launched similar missiles in May from a facility farther south, in Pukchang. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un announced on April 20 that he would discontinue nuclear and some missile tests in anticipation of a summit with President Donald Trump.

Item Number:13 Date: 06/07/2018 PAKISTAN - 3 KILLED IN TTP BOMBING IN NORTHWEST (JUN 07/DAWN) DAWN -- At least three people have been killed in a bombing targeting a police van near Pakistan's northern border with Afghanistan, reports the Dawn (Pakistan). A police officer, the driver and a passerby were killed on Thursday in the Lower Dir District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. The officers from the Zimdara Police Station were on patrol in the area at the time, said police officials. At least two officers in the vehicle were seriously wounded, reported Geo News (Pakistan). The officers were taken to a nearby hospital. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, reported Turkey's Anadolu Agency. The area was a former stronghold for the group, the agency noted

Item Number:14 Date: 06/07/2018 TURKEY - MILITARY TARGETS KURDISH MILITANTS IN N. IRAQ, EYES OP AGAINST HQ IN MT. QANDIL (JUN 07/ANADOLU) ANADOLU NEWS AGENCY -- Six Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters were killed and 16 targets have been destroyed by Turkish airstrikes in northern Iraq, reports Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency. The airstrikes took place in the northern Iraqi regions of Hakurk, Gara, Metina, Zap, Qandil and Avasin Basyan, said a Wednesday release from the Turkish General Staff. The Mt. Qandil region, where the PKK maintains its headquarters, is the target of a Turkish military operation launched against the PKK in March, a spokesman from the ruling Justice and Development Party said on Wednesday. Turkey has focused on Iraq since completing counterterrorism operations in northern Syria earlier this year, the spokesman said.

Item Number:15 Date: 06/07/2018 USA - NAVY REVIEW FINDS SHORTFALLS IN JUNIOR OFFICER SKILLS (JUN 07/DN) DEFENSE NEWS -- A recent internal review of officer of the deck (OOD) competency revealed nearly 85 percent of junior naval officers showed concerns with ship-handling skills, reports Defense News. The competency checks were led by the Surface Warfare Officer School over a three-month period earlier this year. The school randomly selected 164 OOD-qualified, first-tour division officers to participate. The assessment comes after a pair of collisions that killed 17 sailors in 2017. The results of the internal review found that only 27 officers passed with no concerns, 108 officers completed with some concerns and 29 officers had significant concerns. The review concluded that common shortfalls among the officers included struggling to operate radar and associated tools; practically applying international rules of the road for navigating ships at sea; and being able to take immediate action to avoid ship collisions. Data from the evaluations are planned to be used to a develop an updated junior officer of the deck pilot course to address shortfalls. The course is expected to launch in May 2019. The surface fleet is heavily invested in improvements to shore-side simulators and trainers; new assessment teams; increased sea time for all junior officers; more emphasis on bridge watch team management skills; and new courses of instruction for junior officers, said Vice Adm. Richard Brown, the head of Naval Surface Forces/Naval Surface Force U.S. Pacific Fleet

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